Diet plays an incontrovertible role in primate evolution, affecting anatomy, growth and
development, behavior, and social structure. It should come as no surprise that a myriad of …

The pace of reproductive aging has been of considerable interest, especially in regard to the
long postreproductive period in modern women. Here we use data for both sexes from a 37 …

The wear of teeth is a major factor limiting mammalian lifespans in the wild. One method of
describing worn surfaces, dental microwear texture analysis, has proved powerful for …

The threat of wear to dental enamel from hard particles of silica or silicates may have
exerted great selective pressure on mammals. Increasing the hardness of enamel helps to …

Understanding the paleoecology of extinct subfossil lemurs requires reconstruction of
dietary preferences. Tooth morphology is strongly correlated with diet in living primates and …

Traditionally, thick enamel has often been used to infer durophagy (ie, hard nut and seed
consumption) in extinct hominins. These inferences are based on the hypothesis that thick …

The large, bunodont postcanine teeth in living sea otters (Enhydra lutris) have been likened
to those of certain fossil hominins, particularly the'robust'australopiths (genus Paranthropus) …

Any change in the energetic cost of mammalian mastication will affect the net energy gain
from foods. Although the energetic efficiency of masticatory effort is fundamental in …

All primates show some dietary flexibility, particularly during food shortages. Foods
consumed during times of scarcity (ie, fallback foods) strongly influence the ecology and …

Tooth wear in primates is caused by aging and ecological factors. However, comparative
data that would allow us to delineate the contribution of each of these factors are lacking …